My Favorite Cooking Classes

Hi, Readers! Happy New Year!!

To end 2014 on a high note,  I took a few great cooking classes! My first two-day course was on French and Thai/Chinese cooking at the Insitute of Culinary Education. It is located at 23rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. My second two-day class was at Sur La Table located on 57th street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

The Insitute of Culinary Education started in 1975 in the owner's apartment. As enrollment increased, they moved the cooking school to a brownstone uptown. In 1999, they moved to the current 23rd street spot seen here. The next big step for the ICE is their move this month to Brookfield Place located across the street from the World Trade Center.  

Sur La Table, a kitchenware store, also has excellent adult and kid cooking classes. It started out as a flea market shop at Pike Place Market in Seattle. In 1995, the owner sold the store. Today Sur La Table have three locations in Manhattan to shop at and only their West 57th Street location also has cooking classes. They do have additional locations outside of Manhattan. 

Saturday 12/27/14: French Day at ICE

Today we met Chef Sue and Chef David. Chef Sue announced the recipes for today: Roasted Chicken, Gougeres (French cheese puffs), Quiche, Steak Frites, Salad, and Chocolate Mousse.

After I chose what table I would be working at, the chefs assigned the recipes to all of us. I worked on cooking the chicken, making quiches, salad, and the chocolate mousse. 

I cooked the chicken and onions on a stove. It was my first time working on a stove which was very exciting to learn. After the class we tasted our food. It was delicious! The salad, chocolate mousse and the cheese puffs were my favorites. Even though I don't eat chicken, it was one of my favorite dishes to learn how to make. My brother loved eating the chicken and said we did a great job!

 

Sunday 12/18/14: Chinese/Thai at the ICE

 Today was our second day working with the Chefs of ICE. Today we made pad thai, scallion pancakes, beef and broccoli, summer rolls, and chocolate-dipped strawberries and fortune cookies.

 I worked on the summer rolls, the scallion pancakes and the chocolate-dipped desserts. I learned that Asian cooking uses many interesting spices and oils that I really enjoyed tasting. 

The scallion pancakes were my favorite dish of the day and the light sauce we made for both the scallion pancakes and the summer rolls was excellent!

Overall, I loved the teachers, the food, and the equipment I worked with. I liked how I was able to work on many dishes in the three hour class and how gourmet the food was. This is currently one of my new favorite places to take cooking classes!

    

Monday: 11/29/14: Italian at Sur La Table

Today we met Chef Marian for the first time. We started out making homemade fettuccine. The Chefs had pre-made the dough for us and we used a pasta machine to make the dough longer and thinner to create fettuccine noodles.

We then prepared our meatballs for cooking by forming balls out of the meat and adding different spices and egg to it. Next was the tiramisu. We made a coffee and vanilla dipping sauce that we added between the ladyfinger cookies. 

Chef Marian was really great. She was very interactive with the class, and had fun with us while we cooked our food. We also had a small break for browsing in the cooking supply store and learning about the different tools chef use. 

I really enjoyed eating and making the homemade fettuccine. The pasta machine was surprisingly easy to use. I felt like a pro even though it was my first time using it. 

 

        

Tuesday 12/30/14: Mexican at Sur La Table

Today was my last day of cooking. I was sad for it to be my final day but I was excited for today's recipes! Chef Marian told us we were making Vegetarian Tamales and Flan, both dishes I had never had. 

First we used a juicer the made salsa for a dipping sauce for the tamales. The juicer (pictured below) was used for juicing the limes and lemons for the salsa. 

After that we made our Tamales.  The shell was pre-made but we made the yummy filling from Masa, vegetable stock, butter, baking powder and salt. 

We also made Flan, a popular Mexican dessert that is a custard-like sponge cake. The flan turned out delicious too!

Comparing the two classes, ICE was taught by a more serious but excellent Chef and in the three hours, I was able to learn many useful skills and create many restaurant level dishes. I also really enjoyed cooking with Chef Marion at Sur La Table. It was a little bit more of a relaxed class and I enjoyed having a chance to learn about the equipment they sell there too. In two hours, we made less dishes but they also were delicious. I highly recommend both  places for children's cooking classes! I plan to return to both and continue cooking and learning from these great Chefs!!

See you soon! - Andrew

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